In three dimensional (3D) applications, such as computer aided design, visualization, video games, and the like, 3D shapes can be represented as mesh models, such as triangular mesh models. A 3D triangular mesh model may include a large number of triangles, such as a model representing a complex shape and/or a model having a high resolution. As a result of the large number of triangles that are requested by the model, the 3D triangular mesh model can have a large data size, which requires a large amount of resource for processing. For example, a 3D triangular mesh model may require a large storage space for storing the model. In another example, to ensure transmitting a 3D triangular mesh model timely via a communication channel, a large bandwidth may be required.
The large data size of the 3D mesh model may exceed hardware or system capability, or may result in shortages of resources for other applications. Generally, the data size of the 3D mesh model can be reduced by various compression techniques.